Revisiting the Harry Potter Movies

It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen any of the HP movies. I’ve never actually watched them all back to back (more or less. I don’t have 20 hours all at once to dedicate.) So, I thought I’d revisit childhood a bit and watch them all within a week and see what it’s like to watch them again as an adult.

Here are random thoughts while watching the first two of the series.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

The very first movie based off the very first book in the series was released in 2001. I was 11. The three main character’s were also about the same age, so naturally at that age I loved it. But you didn’t have to be 11 to love the film or the book. Because I love it now at 25.

Obviously, the Sorcerer’s Stone was way more light and whimsicle than the later movies, as you can’t have too much terribleness happen to 11 year olds (both the characters and those in the audience.)

Here were some of my thoughts while watching:

– I remembered a ton of the lines
– If Harry grew up in the magical world knowing he’s famous, instead of at Uncle Vernon’s and Aunt Petunia’s – he’d probably be an egotistical and power-hungry shit. And probably in Slytherin
– I need to reread the books
– They’re all adorable
– Emma Watson was born perfect
– Hermoine is such a little know-it-all brat that I wonder how anyone deals with her stuck-up shit. But then I remember this:

– “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live,” Dumbledore in regards to the Mirror of Erised. Liked that one a lot
– It was too late into that movie for me to track myself when I started to wonder what all the spells were they used in this one. Thankfully, there was already a mashup

– I for sure teared up when Dumbledore gave out additional points to Gryffindor at the end

I was completely thrown into the whimsy and excitement and desperately wanting it all to be real life. I looked up Pottermore because I remember going there in the past to be sorted into a house and have a wand chosen and other fun interactive things that make you feel like you’re living in their magical world. That’s not what Pottermore is anymore, sadly. However, it is a place that J.K. Rowling is keeping the story’s alive and the world growing through new additions and pieces of info. I love her on Twitter too, where she tells you little snippets and revealing information about characters, like how Dumbledore is gay. So, I do recommend checking out Pottermore still, even though it’s not the same as it used to be.

Chamber of Secrets

The Chamber of Secrets is right during puberty years for the actors and also the characters, so the first thing I noticed were the mid-puberty voice changes Ron and Harry have going on. Next in line, the teenage peach fuzz coming in.

Here are other thoughts while watching the movie:

– Enter Dobby: Sobbbzzzz. He just wants to protect Harry!

– I want to live with the Weasly’s and I want to show Mr. Weasly all things Muggle and see his face when I show him computers and the internet
– It’s hard to imagine Ginny and Harry a thing. From this movie, obviously because they’re so little, but in the others too they just don’t have the chemistry
– Hermoine looks the same with tamer hair
– The less whimsical/darker tones start in Knockturn Alley
– No one notices or cares that Harry ran Hedwig straight into a wall at platform 9 3\4?
– Mudblood = n word and other derogatory names for Muggle world
– They can’t do shit w/o Hermoine.
– Tears…again… when Hagrid comes back and Harry’s all like “It’s not Hogwarts w/o you Hagrid” and they hug and Hermoine is all teary. Such friendship, yay!

The first two, like I mentioned before, are a little more whimsical than later years. Chris Columbus directed these two too, the only ones he directed in this series. You can tell they have similar feels to them in that way, even though they all tie together nicely no matter the director. We see Voldemort in the first movie, but not in the second. Only as Tom Riddle, which just isn’t the same. But moving along, we’ll get to the Prisoner of Azkaban and (my favorite of the first four) the Goblet of Fire.

Standby!